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Daily Archives: April, 8, 2011

House Speaker John Boehner, speaking briefly to reporters after talks had concluded, said the plan was to pass one last short-term spending resolution Friday night to buy lawmakers the time needed to prepare and pass the final budget bill.

Tapper says the GOP conference has given Boehner the green light and now sources from both sides are saying the deal is done. $38.5 billion in cuts, no defunding of Planned Parenthood. National Journal sets the scene inside the conference room:

BREAKING: House Speaker John Boehner outlined the parameters of a long-term funding deal, telling his members in a closed-door meeting, “This is the best deal we could get out of them,” according to a lawmaker in the room who asked not to be identified.

The deal is still not official, Boehner cautioned, but in a sign things are coming to a close, the House is preparing for a 5-6-day short-term continuing resolution with $3 billion in cuts, he told members, according to the lawmaker.

Update: Here’s a slightly sunnier way to think of the $38.5 billion in cuts: “CNN Congressional Producer Deirdre Walsh reported that a senior GOP aide in the meeting called it the ‘largest real dollar spending cut in American history’ and said the proposal would cut more than $500 billion from the federal budget over the next 10 years.”

“We have agreed to an historic amount of cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year, as well as a short-term bridge that will give us time to avoid a shutdown while we get that agreement through both houses and to the President. We will cut $78.5 billion below the President’s 2011 budget proposal, and we have reached an agreement on the policy riders. In the meantime, we will pass a short-term resolution to keep the government running through Thursday. That short-term bridge will cut the first $2 billion of the total savings.”

As part of the compromise, the GOP will get a vote in the Senate on defunding Planned Parenthood and NPR, etc. Needless to say, those votes will fail.

With a midnight deadline looming for a government closure, the compromise between Obama’s Democrats and opposition Republicans requires lawmakers to approve stopgap funding to keep federal agencies running into next week until the budget agreement can be formally enacted.

Republican Congressman Devin Nunes told Reuters that “the deal” — a plan for $39 billion in spending cuts — was presented to House Republicans at a closed-door meeting and that most members would vote for it. There was no immediate comment from the White House or congressional Democrats.

MORE:

A lot of people are slamming Boehner for not getting everything we wanted, as if he didn’t have a Dem-Socialist Senate, and President to deal with. When he says that was the best deal he could get, I tend to believe him. The punditry in Washington are saying that this was a win for Boehner.

They came to an agreement with Boehner that can’t make them happy. The deal itself is better than I expected: $38.5 billion in cuts, no federally funded abortions for DC, and separate votes on Planned Parenthood funding and Obamacare repeal.* Andrew Stiles calls it a big win for Boehner, and makes a pretty convincing case that it’s so:

Perhaps more significant than the $38.5 billion in cuts, which Boehner told members was “the best deal we could get,” are the political implications as both side prepare to tackle the bigger spending issues. “We’ve changed the conversation,” said freshman Rep. Tim Griffin (R., Ark.). “This year we’re talking about how much we’re going to reduce — cut — and that’s a major cultural shift in a matter of months.”

Indeed, Harry’s Reid dramatic shift on spending cuts — from denouncing the initial GOP offer ($32 billion) as “draconian” and “unworkable,” to celebrating a $38.5 billion spending cut as “historic” — is remarkable in and of itself. Also telling was the way that Democrats artificially inflated the amount of cuts being offered. (At least they care enough about the political sensibilities of American voters to lie to them about it).

The history of offers on this bill goes something like this. Democrats first offered no cuts, then $4 billion, then $6.5 billion, then $33 billion, then settled at $38.5 billion.

Boehner made numerous adjustments to his offer in recent days too, but started at $32 billion, then with a Tea Party push went to $62 billion, then dropped to $40 billion, then $38.5 billion.

Democrats claimed they met Republicans halfway after the $10 billion in cuts that already passed this year were approved. They settled late Friday night at three and a half times more.

Boehner came in $8.5 billion higher than the halfway point between his high offer of $61 billion in cuts and the Democrats opening bid of zero cuts.

It was not a totally lopsided bargain. Dems have some silver linings. There were no votes on defunding the EPA or PBS and NPR. Democrats fought for and won a $2 billion cut from the Department of Defense, knocking the military appropriation for the rest of the year down to $513 billion.

But the GOP had to be able to see this as a win in the end, because it is puny compared to what they want to do next.

We all watched in amazement and horror as the Democratic Party led its minions off the cliff and made them vote to jam through Obama’s health care law. We knew it was mass suicide, but we watched with incredulity as they bravely stepped up to drink the Kool-Aid. Now it is the turn of the Republicans freshmen — the very people who inherited the seats of those who walked the plank — to march off a cliff of their own.

The electorate that impelled the GOP triumph in 2010 will not tolerate a breaking of the Republican promise to cut $100 billion from the budget. They will accept, of course, the pro-rated share of the advertised total — $61 billion over seven months — but not anything less. It is a simple matter of keeping one’s campaign promises.

Any freshman who votes for a budget deal below $61 billion will face a primary and likely defeat either for the nomination of in the general election. That is just the fact of political life.

The Tea Party supporters and the aroused Republican electorate will not stand for it. The myopia which obscures Boehner’s and Cantor’s view of this reality is as blinding as that which made Pelosi, Obama, and Reid sacrifice their majority over health care.

My own midnight mood was disgruntled. It appears that Republican leaders used pro-lifers as a bargaining chip, making a show of standing firm on the defunding of Planned Parenthood, only to abandon that position at the last minute. The GOP thus made a winner of Chuck Schumer, who had vowed the Senate would “never, never, never” agree to cut the taxpayer subsidy to Planned Parenthood.

Basic rule of thumb: It’s not a conservative victory if Chuck Schumer has any reason to smile.

Beyond the GOP’s disappointing (but by no means unprecedented) abandonment of social conservatives, the amount that Boehner’s bargain would cut from the 2011 budget, about $39 billion, represents something less than 1/30th of this year’s deficit. So if this “historic” reduction of federal spending (to borrow Harry Reid’s expression) charts our future course, the United States might achieve a balanced budget by 2042.

So Reid was left with the policy riders, especially the defunding of Planned Parenthood. On that one issue Reid got some traction, but only very late in the negotiations. But note, even there he failed to preserve his position. Originally, Reid said that he would never allow a floor vote on Planned Parenthood funding. Never. It was entirely off limits. But there’s a funny thing about saying “never” when you’re talking about public consideration of how to spend millions of dollars. Reid’s “never” looked pretty damn unreasonable.

And now, because of Boehner’s oh-so-reasonable demeanor, there will be a floor vote on corporate welfare for Planned Parenthood. To go along with larger budget cuts than the ones that Reid called “extreme” and “draconian” just a month ago.

Like this:

The left loves to blast conservatives for their “vitriolic discourse”, yet often fail spectacularly to maintain basic civility in their own discourse. The New Tone Award is reserved for liberal notables who wallow in this hypocrisy.

“What Fox News says is often not true, and they know it’s not true and they say it anyway. It is not a news organization. It is a very expensive, incredibly well-funded, right-wing propaganda organization.”

Dean continued to drive this point home claiming that the reason so many Fox viewers believed Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11 was because “they were lied to every single day on virtually every program on Fox News.”

Today’s Morning Joe played a Letterman clip of a faux-promo for an imaginary TV show called “The Dick Cheney Story.” As the title song from the Mary Tyler Moore Show plays merrily in the background, we’re treated to images of Cheney wielding a gun, in a wheelchair and undergoing open-heart surgery. The clip closes with video of Cheney fighting to get a breath of air.Cut to Mika, doubled-over, laughing hysterically, literally to the point of tears.

“Little piggies go to market, and clean up on Aisle 5,” the article’s online headline snarked.”Repulsion may or may not be the show’s ultimate intent, but it stirs up unsettling and complex thoughts, not only about the sins of gluttony and pride, but also about the production and consumption of cheap, processed food,” Stuever insisted. “There’s also something to snack on for those of us fretting over an ever-widening wealth gap amid dwindling resources.”

The path that the Republicans are taking to achieve this is what we call in the media, what I’ve called in the media for a long time, a dead demographic story. What is a dead demographic story? A dead demographic story is it only affects them old folks! And them young folks ain’t gonna be paying attention to it! The 18-to-34, the 25-to-49 crowd. Medicare? What the hell’s that?! I’m trying to keep my job, man! What are you talking about?! That doesn’t catch my attention! But it catches the attention of the almost dead!

Moran’s contempt shines through right from the moment he begins speaking, saying, “And if you served your country in the military for 27 years, I thank you for that service, sir.” Is it so unusual to find a military veteran in Moran’s district that his gratitude has to come with a qualifier? Does Moran employ the qualifier for veterans who ask questions along the lines of “How can you be so totally awesome and humble at the same time?” He then insults the constituent by claiming that his question was “caustic” rather than “legitimate,” prompting the veteran to interrupt — and Moran to act like an old schoolmarm when he does.

“This is probably one of the worst times we’ve seen because the numbers of people elected to Congress. I went through this as co-chair of the arts caucus,” Slaughter said. “In ’94 people were elected simply to come here to kill the National Endowment for the Arts. Now they’re here to kill women.”

“There is actually a war on women,” the California Democrat said Thursday in Washington, taking aim at House Republicans’ efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and restrict access to abortions, among other measures.

During an interview on MSNBC this morning on the subject of the budget and possible government shutdown, the Dem congresswoman from California tried to drown out her Republican colleague from New York, Michael Grimm, by chanting “broke because of Bush.”

Like this:

Starting with Kloppenburg’s embarrassing victory press conference, the left really set themselves up for disappointment and ridicule by ostentatiously celebrating the dubious election result. With only a slim 204 vote lead, no winner yet certified, preliminary recanvassing ongoing, and an official recount assured, online lefties felt confident to declare victory:

Can we please, please, please not try to be the smartest ones in the room just this one time and play the game that Republicans always play. Let’s declare victory now and talk about pushing Prosser off the stage. This is the message.

Kloppenburg won an election she should never have won. What a humiliation for the Tea Party and their media toads.

This is a total Wisonsin smackdown of Scott Walker

Prosser should really understand it is time to leave the stage.

Prosser sticking around is just hurting Wisconsin.

There is serious businesss to conduct and Prosser is just gumming up the works by trying to challenge this.

Tuesday’s contest was widely considered a referendum on Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s moves to weaken public employee unions and a test of the political strength of the unions to strike back.

Had David Prosser won, you can be certain that the right-wing noise machine led by FAUX News would have been claiming that this “referendum” vindicated Gov. Scott Walker and his Tea-Publican legislature. But since Prosser lost what was deemed to be a sure thing only a few weeks ago, Gov. Walker now wants to distance himself from that “referendum” election label. Walker says Supreme Court race not a referendum on his agenda. I’ll bet he does.

Speaking at Wayne State University in Detroit, the labor leader said he sees a bright future for unions. He said collective bargaining rights are more prized now that public sector unions have come under fire from Republican governors.

“Honestly, for years — for years — we’ve been trying to hold a national debate on collective bargaining, and thanks to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — and a few of his friends — we’re having one. And guess what? We’re winning,” Trumka said, according to prepared remarks.

“The overreaching of anti-worker politicians today may have given us the game changer we need.

I’m writing to you from Wisconsin, ground zero in the fight between Republicans and the middle class, where we just had a HUGE win!

I’m literally breathless. I’m witnessing history. Incumbent candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court generally get re-elected in a landslide. But in the general election on Tuesday, progressive JoAnne Kloppenburg closed the gap and won by a razor thin margin against conservative justice David Prosser!

On Wednesday morning, with 99% of the vote in, and Prosser up by more than 800 votes, I said it was too close to call, and a recount would be forthcoming. If Prosser had won with a lead of only 200 votes, a statistical tie, I wouldn’t have felt comfortable declaring victory, especially knowing how recounts usually fare for Republicans. That so many on the left did feel comfortable declaring victory, I think, is somewhat telling.

Like a thousand trails of tears, interspersed with spastic rage, progressives huddled down within the #wivote Twitter hashtag last night as conservatives pounced like ravenous wolves, rending quivering flesh from corpulent corpses like that of @MMFlint – aka Michael Moore. Given that there was hardly even a solid backbone to gnaw on, we simply chewed on their asses and spit them out!